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Thy Throne O Lord Is Forever |
Sanctuary Dedication
September 21, 1997
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© John Ewing Roberts, 9/21/97 |
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INTRODUCTION AND THANKSGIVING There are so many to thank: - God for giving us the grace to reach this day; - all who went before us in this church; - those strong and visionary leaders in 1969, "the three A's," Dr. Samuel P. Asper, chair of the Future of the Church Committee; James L. Alexander, chair of the Building ommittee; and my beloved predecessor and mentor, Dr. W. Clyde Atkins; - the late J. N. Evans and his friend, Jim Trammell, who is here today with his wife and daughter; Jim and J. N. found the parcels of land on which our church is now located; - those who gave to the Building Fund established in 1969 under Bill Buzby's leadership as soon as the original building was completed; - each of you who has given "not equal gifts but equal sacrifice" through Together We Build; - the members of our Building Committee and its leaders, Larry Jenkins, Dick Ransom, Steve Meador, Cheryl Duvall-Harden, Randy Fowler, Toney Gillenwater, Phyllis Heffler, Marylynn Roberts, Shirley Wilson, Vicki Allen, Barry Huhn, Brooks Major, and Ben Primer; - those generous spirits, Judson Councill and Marjorie Allen (we sang one of her favorite hymns, Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus our Blessed Redeemer earlier in the service; - the leaders of our church in these recent years: all our lay leaders and staff members who have worked faithfully with limited resources; two who have moved are back today from Atlanta, Georgia, our former Church Council chair, Jim Satterfield, and our former Deacon chair, Lynn Satterfield; - those who asked tough, fair, hard questions about the needs and resources for this venture; - those who shared and kept the dream alive, even when it seemed least likely of realization. The old Roman historian Livy records that when Rome's fortunes were at an all time low after Hannibal of Carthage had routed the Romans at the Battle of Cannae, the defeated consul, Varro, was met on his return to Rome by men of all conditions who thanked him for not having despaired of the commonwealth (quod de re publica non desperasset) (Ab Urbe Condita, Book XXII, section 61). I note with sadness and gratitude that yesterday we buried Virginia Tinley, one of those great spirits of prayer who, whether our fortunes were high or low, never despaired of the Woodbrook Baptist Church. THE FIRST SANCTUARY DEDICATION The date was April 2, 1871, when Richard Fuller stood in the pulpit of the Eutaw Place Baptist Church to give the dedicatory sermon. The white marble steeple glistened in the sunlight. A different fountain graced each block of what was then Baltimore's finest street. Fuller's text wasthe final portion of the scripture sentences with which we began our service here at Woodbrook today: "The throne of God is for ever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom." Hebrews 1: 8 The record gives only the text, no hint of how our first pastor developed it. But based on his extant sermons and the bent of his mind, I am confident that he wanted our forbears to understand something like this: We thank God for the lovely edifice raised to praise our Lord and to extend his reign in the human spirit. As long as we have waited for it, and as lovely as it is, as thrilled as we are to be here and as eagerly as we look forward to gathering here for years to come, never forget that this house is not "for ever and ever." This house is for our time and beyond, but not "for ever and ever." Only the reign of God shall be for ever and ever. Hard as it is for us to believe, much less to visualize, this house may someday be no more. It is only the reign of God that is for ever and ever. Our role is to participate in and extend the righteousness of God, the one religious enterprise that is permanent. Less than two months ago Marylynn and I were on our way to a wedding reception in Yorkshire. (The bride and groom are here today!). As we turned north toward the Oldstead Hall, our landmark was the ruin of Byland Abbey, where in the 12th century Cistercian monks had erected what was then the largest church in England. Now all that remains are romantic stone ruins -- picture the photograph in your high school English lit book to illustrate Wordsworth's poem, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey and you've got the picture. That great church building did not last for ever and ever; nor will ours. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Daniel Webster was on the same track when he wrote, "If we work with marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instill into them just principles, we are then engraving that upon tablets which not time will efface, but will brighten and brighten to all eternity." (Tyron Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations [Detroit, Michigan: F. B. Dickerson Co.] 1905, pp. 347-348) In drawing on Fuller, I stand in a great tradition. I quote Fuller. Fuller quoted Hebrew 1: 6. The author of Hebrews was quoting Psalm 45: 6. All of us draw on God's inspired word aboutwhat really is important, what really matters, what lasts for ever and ever. The minutes of the Eutaw Place Baptist Church for that day 126 years ago state that the entire cost of the building and furniture was about $102,000 and with the exception of about $3,000 all of it was given by the church. Layman Hiram Woods generously gave the land at the corner of Eutaw and Dolphin Streets. The record notes "that the work from beginning to the end was without serious casualty to a single person employed in the new building. And to God again, be all glory. Amen. 'Except the Lord building the house they labor in vain who build it.'" The minutes conclude: "...in remembrance (of)...the trials, disappointments, fears, times of depression, times of rejoicing, and then our final and complete success we are led to exclaim, `This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.'" THE IMPACT OF THE FIRST SANCTUARY A history of Baltimore churches written in 1885 notes that of the $102,000 our forbears needed to pay for the Eutaw Place sanctuary, they were $33,000 short when they dedicated the building. The debt had not been completely liquidated fourteen years later. But, thanks to "systematic contributions of members of the Church" they were reducing the debt. "The communion service, the pulpit furniture, and the stained glass window in front, were all donated by ladies." As always, thank God for the ladies! The historian reported that the Eutaw Place building signaled the opening of "a new period of Baptist progress. The denomination here now assumed a braver front, enlarged its aims, and become more liberal in contributions of money for God's work." (History of Baptist Churches in Maryland Connected with the Maryland Baptist Union Association, printed and published by J. F. Weishampel, Jr., Baltimore, 1885, p. 164) No one that day dreamed that the church would ever relocate from what was then considered to be the northwest suburbs to the wilds of Baltimore County. By the way, in 1871 the city-county line was what is now called North Avenue. Then it was called Boundary Avenue, the boundary between Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Let me give you something of the character of that building from the biography of our first pastor, written by his nephew, then pastor of the First Baptist Church of Washington City, the church of one of our greeters today, Stan Hastey. Fuller's kinsman wrote that "as long as men differ in taste and character, they will differ as to the appointments of worship. Where the imaginative faculties predominate, men will seek to aid their devotional feelings by the embellishments of art and the attractions of music, and the Catholic ritual will prevail; where a ... spiritual and intellectual view obtains....the interest will centre around the prayers and hymns and sermon....while with others...devotion becomes a severe abstraction. The first is the Catholic type, the second the Protestant, and the third...Quaker... There is a modicum of truth in each, and the due combination and just proportion of all is the ideal of New-Testamentworship." (J. H. Cuthbert, Life of Richard Fuller [New York: Sheldon and Company] 1878, p. 284) (emphasis added) This respect by a Baptist for the strengths of the Catholic, Protestant and Quaker approaches to worship was and is remarkable. But it was precisely that kind of eclectic combination which Fuller and the Eutaw Place architect, Thomas U. Walter, sought to integrate in that building, which, I suspect, was considered radical among Baptists of the time. Victorian Gothic, elegant in its appointments, straightforward in its presentation, the baptistery on the congregation's level to their left, the choir to their right, the central positions held by the pulpit where the word was spoken and the table where the bread was broken. HOW WE GOT HERE The momentum which brings us to this day began in 1871, but it was renewed in December 1949 with a call for business meeting on January 9, 1950 to consider relocating the church. It will not surprise some of you to know that those present on January 9 were reluctant to do business at a business meeting, and wanted to wait and get more folks out. The vote was postponed until January 30. The motion carried, and we began to work on relocation. It would take us 47 years to complete the task; in 19 of those years we continued a demanding inner city ministry with diminishing human resources; for 28 of those years we tried to sustain a church with a strong worship tradition in a temporary sanctuary without benefit of a baptistery. Meanwhile, back in 1950, the Sun missed the big story that Eutaw Place was going to move. Instead it reported that the Russians were ending a 10 day Berlin blockade and that steak was selling for the ridiculously high price of 73 per pound. On Easter Sunday 1969 the first services were held in the room where we will go in a few minutes for refreshments, the site of our "temporary sanctuary" for the 28 years! The Building Committee which has brought us to this happy day has been together a long time. We had our first meeting on May 8, 1989. That was a long time ago, so long ago that Cal Ripken was only 1,118 games into his streak. The Sun headlines reported on that day that West Bank Arabs were demanding education for their children, and that the United States and Russia were working on a joint space venture. There was also a Sun article on "Risks in American Life." We are taking a risk, or to use religious language, a leap of faith. We had some money in a Building Fund, some capital in an endowment fund, and high hopes of what we could raise within our congregation and what we could borrow. LESSONS FROM OUR PAST TO SPEED US ON OUR WAY What can we learn from our past to inform our present and speed us into our future? "Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it." When all is said and done, this building is not ours but the Lord's, and if we ever forget it for a minute, what we do here is vanity. "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." What happens here is always open to the possibility of the marvelous, the miraculous, the mysterious. Thanks to "systematic contributions of members of the Church" they were reducing the debt. This building is debt free! No loans, no mortgages - thank God! But our giving deficit is significant. At a recent Church Council meeting it was pointed out that if half of us continue to give in addition to our regular gifts half of what we have been giving through "Together We Build," we will balance our budget! It can be done! There was in the olden days "a new period of Baptist progress. The denomination here now assumed a braver front, enlarged its aims, and become more liberal in contributions of money for God's work." The columnist Cal Thomas recently quoted the pollster George Barna who found that the average American's view of Christians of the Baptist persuasions is twofold: "They go to a lot of meetings, and they are against a lot of things." God knows how we hunger for a more expansive, inclusive, generous spirit and reputation among Baptists! "The communion service, the pulpit furniture, and the stained glass window in front were all donated by the ladies." The gifts of women in our church today can be even greater in a time when we recognize their ministries among us. From Miss Annie to the strong women of Woodbrook, there is much reason for thanksgiving. This respect by a Baptist for the strengths of the Catholic, Protestant and Quaker approaches to worship was and is remarkable. But it was precisely that kind of eclectic combination which Fuller and the Eutaw Place architect, Thomas U. Walter, sought to integrate in that building, May Woodbrook offer an integrated worship in this great space, a worship which respects all of God's children and their ways of communion with our Creator. There was also a Sun article on "Risks in American Life." People of faith take risks - we were not blessed with the resources at our disposal just to sit on our assets. CONCLUSION I want to end where Fuller began, with the notion that the only thing that matters is the reign of God, the idea that in his own way Webster articulated: "If we work with marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instill into them just principles, we are then engraving that upon tablets which not time will efface, but will brighten and brighten to all eternity." Two Sundays ago at the worship service at Edenwald, I mentioned that I had been associate pastor at the Eutaw Place Baptist Church. There was a gasp from one of the worshippers who later came up to me. "When I was five years old," she said, "my mother died, and I was turned over to my grandparents." Apparently they were servants and lived on the second floor of a carriage house or garage behind one of the grand homes on Eutaw Place. The little girl was sent to the Eutaw Place Baptist Church. "I was poor - it was the depression - I was from another denomination - I had no family connections in the church, but they treated me like a princess. They met my every need. There was nothing they would not do for me. I was so welcomed, so included. I still define what a church ought to be by that experience." Then she paused and asked, "Maybe you have heard of the three women who were so kind to me: Elizabeth Sawyer (Engel), Marjorie Allen, and Sarah Lee Atkins." Those three women are very present to us today: Mrs. Atkins is in this room with her children and grandchildren; Elizabeth and Marjorie are surely among that cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we run the race that is set before us. If we work with marble, it will perish... if we build temples, they will crumble into dust, but if we build for the kingdom of God on immortal souls, our work will brighten and brighten to all eternity. We dedicate this sanctuary for worship that we may witness and work. We dedicate this sanctuary for... worship that will lift us to our good Lord, witness that will speak out the good news, and work that will reach out with good deeds, because "the throne of God is forever and ever." Woodbrook Baptist Church (Formerly Eutaw Place Baptist Church) Baltimore, Maryland |